There is a dimension, relatively less known, to the literary personality of Subramania Bharati (1882-1921).
Bharati, famous for his songs and poems that sought to stir nationalistic feelings among people, also wrote a number of short stories.
Though short story, as a form of creative writing, gained currency in Tamil after the launch of Manikodi, a magazine that ran for six years (1933-39), Bharati can be considered a pioneer who used this form, too, to reflect his literary expression. But there are other views. Veteran Tamil writer-playwright Indira Parthasarathy feels that the short story, as a literary form, had not been fully developed even in the West during the period of Bharati. “So, he used short stories as a didactic medium.”
True to his characteristic, Bharati, in his short stories, covered a number of subjects — from philosophy to the ills of the caste system and from Hindu-Muslim unity to women empowerment. This can be seen in a collection of his 11 stories, compiled by Raja Mutthirulandi, a Tiruchi-based academic.
The collection, which has been released to mark the 100th death anniversary of the writer, highlights one more interesting aspect: Bharati used different pen names, such as Shellydas, Kalidasan and Sakthidasan, to write the stories between 1905 and 1920.
